hidden_voices

Hidden Voices: The CBI, corporate lobbying and sustainabilityeconomic instruments, and in favour of the principle of environmental regulation, but itobjects in terms of supposed ‘practical consequences’. These practical consequencestypically ignore:• specific financial gains, such as the National Insurance rebate in relation to the ClimateChange Levy• broader business benefits, such as easier recruitment and lower labour turnover with ahigher minimum wage• benefits to specific sectors of industry, such as environmental technology• the wider benefits to society of higher environmental standardsThe Climate Change Levy case also demonstrates that the CBI is happy to put the interestsof a minority of members (in other words, the big manufacturers) first, at the expense of itsbroader membership.In summary, this evidence shows that the CBI is prepared to be selective in its use ofresearch to try and prove its case, that it lacks a sense of proportion about the potential costsof social and environmental progress, and that it moulds the results of its research to fit itsanti-regulatory prejudices. It is also significant that the CBI fails to offer any crediblealternatives to regulation that will result in business making changes in order to meet socialand environmental challenges.47